St. Louis: Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour

One of our favorite parts of discovering St. Louis last week was our trip to the Anheuser Busch Brewery, where we took an hour-long tour of the Clydesdale stables, brewery and even packaging floor.

                

Yes, we took the kids. And yes, they had fun. (Thanks to our friend Kristy for passing on the tip that kids were welcome). Some cool things the nerd in me learned on our tour, in no particular order:

1. The brewery was one of the few that lasted through prohibition, largely because it found other things to make during the time. (John and I are a little obsessed with Boardwalk Empire on HBO, and I'm fascinated with the Prohibition period.) The brewery made things like ice cream and baker's yeast during the dry spell, and reopened its doors as a brewery the day Prohibition ended. 

2. There's a lot to learn about hops, barley and yeast. Oh, and fermentation. 

3. Anheuser Busch cares deeply about its image -- and I'm in the image business now, so I was really impressed.

 

See what I mean? Really fancy stables. 

 

This picture made me laugh a little when I found it. John is sort of in awe, you think?
                        

The packaging floor, where we watched them label and package bottles and cans.

  

At the end of the tour, shuttles took us to a hospitality room, where we got to sample two beers. I tried two I'd never had before: Shock Top Belgian White (right) and Wild Blue Blueberry beer. The Shock Top was great. Wild Blue, not so much. 

They also had soda and pretzels for the kids, so my boys were happy to sit and wait on John and me and finish.